and I'm sayin' it here.

Tag: elevation

I am not going to give a lot of statistics on elevation in this post. What is significant about elevation, as you would expect, is that this is a very deep canyon. Viewed from the rim, the Colorado River at the bottom looks like a tiny ribbon when, in fact, it is quite wide in all the places that you can see it.

Standing at various lookouts on the rim during my first brief trip, I remember feeling that rush looking out over the cliffs. You almost can’t help but think of what it would be like to fall, or jump. The drops are so extreme. ( I was saddened to hear the news last week of a tourist who fell to his death. Taking pictures can be hazardous. )

The rims vary from 6000 to 8500 feet above sea level. The
drop down to the river at the bottom of the canyon varies from 3500 to 6000
feet. Our gain/loss of elevation on Day 2 and Day 4 of the hike will be about
5,000 feet. That is enough difference in elevation to produce a climate change.
It is often much cooler up on the rim and quite warm to very hot at the bottom.

That might make it tricky to pack the right clothing. In
May, when I am going, it should not be oppressively hot at the bottom and
hopefully, it won’t be snowing up on the rim.

One very curious fact – the plateaus on both sides of the
canyon are higher than the elevation upriver. Why did the path of the river run
from low to high elevation when it first began cutting the Grand Canyon? Of
course, it didn’t. There are several theories about why it appears this way.
None of them are certain. Geology is sometimes very strange and although it has
stories to tell, we don’t understand them all.

I will end with a picture of one of the bridges that we will cross at the bottom of the canyon – a bridge that still seems scary high, even though it is dwarfed by the walls of the canyon.

It’s difficult to see but there is a mule train crossing the Black Bridge to Phantom Ranch. This footbridge has a solid floor to keep the animals from looking down and freaking out.